Wilma Rudolph was born black in Jim Crow Tennessee. The twentieth of 22 children, she spent most of her childhood in bed suffering from whooping cough, scarlet fever, and pneumonia. She lost the use of her left leg due to polio and wore leg braces. With dedication and hard work, she became a gifted runner, earning a track and field scholarship to Tennessee State. In 1960, she became the first American woman to win three gold medals in a single Olympic Games. Her underdog story made her into a media darling, and she was the subject of countless articles, a television movie, children's books, biographies, and she even featured on a U.S. postage stamp. In this work, Smith and Liberti consider not only Rudolph's achievements, but also the ways in which those achievements are interpreted and presented as historical fact. Theories of gender, race, class, and disability collide in the story of Wilma Rudolph, and Smith and Liberti examine this collision in an effort to more fully understand how history is shaped by the cultural concerns of the present. In doing so, the authors engage with the metanarratives which define the American experience and encourage more complex and nuanced interrogations of contemporary heroic legacy.
After nearly being incarcerated at age seventeen and becoming a father at nineteen, Jeremiah Brown manages to grow up into a responsible young adult. But while juggling the demands of a long-term relationship, fatherhood, mortgage payments, and a nine-to-five banking career, he feels something is missing. A new goal captures his imagination: What would it take to become an Olympian?
Guided by a polarizing coach, Brown and his teammates plumb the depths of physical and mental exertion in pursuit of a singular goal. The 4 Year Olympian is a story of courage, perseverance, and overcoming self-doubt, told from the perspective of an unlikely competitor.
The 2018 Winter Olympics will be the stage for many compelling stories. Athletes like Ashley Wagner and Sven Kramer are windows into hidden social phenomena, from figure skating's eating disorders to the Dutch obsession with speed skating. Controversies like the Russian doping scandal, the NHL player ban, and the question of whether North Korea will compete or disrupt are creating human drama that affects thousands of athletes. Paralympic athlete Oksana Masters' story of overcoming great odds to challenge for Olympic gold will inspire listeners. Other competitors, like Lindsey Vonn and Lizzy Yarnold, are simply living legends in the sports of downhill skiing and skeleton. Get pumped up for what's shaping up to be the most dramatic winter games ever
Those who avidly followed the on-court acrobatics and off-court celebrity of the "Dream Team" in Barcelona in 1992 would hardly recognize what passed as basketball fifty-six years earlier, when the United States first played the game in the 1936 Olympics. In those early days of men's Olympic basketball, many teams lacked basic skills, games were played in the pouring rain, only seven players could suit up, and the rules allowed only two substitutions and no time-outs. How this slow, low-scoring sport became the breakneck game that enraptures millions worldwide is the story of American Hoops. In this fascinating history of Olympic basketball on the world stage and behind the scenes, Carson Cunningham presents a kaleidoscopic picture of the evolution into the twenty-first century of one of America's most popular sports. From clashes between celebrated egos and thrilling action on the court to the intense rivalries of the Cold War and technological advances in everything from television to sports equipment off the court, American Hoops follows the fortunes of Olympic basketball, in the United States and internationally, as it developed and emerged as one of the most challenging and entertaining sports in the world. Cunningham traces how the modifications made by the International Olympic Committee and the International Basketball Federation have transformed the game of basketball over the years, from the Berlin to the Beijing Olympics. His book offers a remarkable view of the changing world through the prism of Olympic sport.
For over 1,000 years, between 776 BC and AD 395, people from all over the classical world flocked every four years to Olympia in Western Greece to see famous athletes compete for the olive crowns of the ancient Olympic Games. The Games were huge, and so was the build-up: virtually the whole of the preceding year was devoted to the preparations of the site and the athletes. But these games were much more than just a sporting event: religion, power, politics, scandal, and propaganda were all at the center of the five-day festival. Held in honor of Zeus, the supreme god of Greek mythology, a visit to Olympia was also a pilgrimage to his sacred temple.
In this updated edition of her indispensable guide to the ancient Games, Judith Swaddling traces their mythological and religious origins. Describing the events, the sacred ceremony, and the celebrations that were an essential part of the Olympic festival, this book paints a vivid picture of what it was like to be at these prestigious games.
Concluding with a chapter on the modern Olympics that brings the story right up to the preparations for the London 2012 Games, this fascinating book is essential reading for anyone interested in the Olympics, the greatest games of them all.
Los Juegos Ol mpicos de Barcelona 92, todav a considerados por muchos los mejores de la historia, cambiaron el deporte espa ol de arriba abajo y para siempre. Veinticinco a os despu s, en Espa a se entrena, se compite, se organiza y se invierte en deporte seg n los par metros que se fijaron entonces. Las 22 medallas que el equipo espa ol gan all permanecen como un hito inigualado, pero las 17 obtenidas en R o 2016 son herencia directa de la semilla all plantada. Barcelona 92 explica las claves de aquel xito y de la fabulosa transformaci n experimentada por la Ciudad Condal gracias a los juegos. Un equipo de periodistas de la Agencia EFE interpreta aquella cita desde todos sus ngulos, con testimonios in ditos de sus protagonistas. Deportistas legendarios como Ferm n Cacho, Kiko Narv ez, Jos Manuel Moreno, Miriam Blasco, Juan Antonio San Epifanio o Antonio Rebollo; artistas como Montserrat Caball , Javier Mariscal o Los Manolos; dirigentes como Juan Antonio Samaranch o Javier G mez Navarro; y personajes an nimos como los voluntarios o el botones del hotel en el que se aloj el Dream Team desvelan sus recuerdos de aquellos juegos, junto a datos y an cdotas nunca antes conocidos.
1936 marked the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt to his second term as president and the beginning -- and end -- of Edward VIII's brief reign as King of England. It also featured the most politicized Olympic Games of the century, in which Adolf Hitler attempted to turn the world's premiere athletic competition into a showcase for fascism, a regime that would soon instigate the bloodiest war in history.
In this riveting real-life thriller, Guy Walters examines every aspect of the 1936 Games; the International Olympic Committee and its controversial selection of Berlin as the host city; how Germany was viewed by the world in 1936, according to press accounts of the time, and individual stories of key athletes. From athletic glory in the spotlight to political machinations behind the scenes, Berlin Games presents a compelling, unforgettable overview of the competitions and controversy that marked the Eleventh Olympiad. Guy Walters is the author of bestselling wartime thrillers The Traitor, The Leader, and The Occupation. He co-edited The Voice of War, an anthology of World War II memoirs. A regular contributor on historical subjects for The Daily News, Walters was a feature writer and commissioning editor for The Times (London) for eight years. He is married to author Annabel Venning and they have one son. A rich, entertaining and sobering narrative." -- Melbourne Age--The Observer (England)
For readers of Laura Hillenbrand's Seabiscuit and Unbroken, the dramatic story of the American rowing team that stunned the world at Hitler's 1936 Berlin Olympics
Daniel James Brown's robust book tells the story of the University of Washington's 1936 eight-oar crew and their epic quest for an Olympic gold medal, a team that transformed the sport and grabbed the attention of millions of Americans. The sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the boys defeated elite rivals first from eastern and British universities and finally the German crew rowing for Adolf Hitler in the Olympic games in Berlin, 1936.
The emotional heart of the story lies with one rower, Joe Rantz, a teenager without family or prospects, who rows not for glory, but to regain his shattered self-regard and to find a place he can call home. The crew is assembled by an enigmatic coach and mentored by a visionary, eccentric British boat builder, but it is their trust in each other that makes them a victorious
